Looking for Something to Do? Free Pasadena Events January 12 to 18

Here are events scheduled Saturday, Jan. 12, to Friday, Jan. 18.

All events are free, so take a look -- and don't you dare say there's nothing to do in Pasadena!

Emerging Urban Poets is an ongoing poetry writing workshop for adults the first and third Saturdays of every month. The next workshop is Saturday, Jan. 12, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at Santa Catalina Branch Library. 

A musical program titled Opera Plus Sunday, Jan. 13, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library will feature sopranos Coril Prochnow and Samantha Aiko Kim and baritone Eric Castro performing works from operas by Mozart, Puccini and Webber as well as songs from West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera and South Pacific.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002, PG) starring Everlyn Sampi and Kenneth Branagh will be shown Monday, Jan. 14, at 1 p.m. in Studio on 4th (fourth floor) at Central Library. In the western Australian outback in 1931, three half aboriginal and half white girls run away from a government-run training settlement to escape a guaranteed life as domestic servants and laborers because of their mixed race, and they follow a 1,000-mile fence to get home to their parents while being pursued by a government official who believes "half castes" must be bred out of existence. The film is based on true events.

The Screening Mimis Film Discussion Group for adults presents Sinbad the Sailor (1947, NR) starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Maureen O'Hara Tuesday, Jan. 15, at 1:30 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center. An ocean adventure awaits Sinbad as he sets out in search of the fabled lost treasure of Alexander the Great. The film will be preceded by a presentation about its hidden history and followed by a lively discussion. You do not have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend, but you do have to be 50 or older.

Pasadena Presbyterian Church will be one of the venues for the annual Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival. Cellist Lars Hoefs, pianist Rose Chen and clarinetist Karl Pasch will perform Brazilian works Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 12:10 to 12:40 p.m.

The Goodbye Girl (1977, PG) starring Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss will be shown Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 1 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library. A struggling Off-Broadway actor sublets a New York City apartment only to find that a former dancer and her 10-year-old daughter live there, so they find a way to make the best of a seemingly bad situation.

Musicians from the Pasadena Symphony and Pops will perform Thursday, Jan. 17, at 2 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center. You do not have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend, but you do have to be 50 or older.

Romeo and Juliet (1936, NR) starring Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer will be shown Friday, Jan. 18, at 1 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center. A teenage boy and girl discover young love despite an age-old vendetta between their respective noble families. You do not have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend, but you do have to be 50 or older.

Photo credits: Free Library of Philadelphia, San Francisco Opera, Rumbalara Films, RKO Radio Pictures, Lars Hoefs, Warner Bros., Pasadena Symphony and Pops, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).